Guerilla warfare in two civil wars

Focus of the topic

Background Info

Guerilla warfare:

unconventional

small groups conducting ambushes, sabotage, etc to fight a larger enemy

Vietcong of Vietnam Civil War against Diem's ARVN and the US

more than 2M US vs 200K Vietcong

Castro's force in Cuban Revolution against Batista

Both used Guerilla warfare, which was succesful in some previous wars ex: Chinise Civil War

Vietnam was supported by China/Soviet, Cuba conencted to soviet later

They were similar, but the significance of Vietnam was higher.

Body

P2 - Successful tactics

Their tacitics and the use of guerilla warfare was effective

Vietcong

Punji traps

Easily built, effective to damage soilders physically and mentally so significant

Networks of tunnel in jungle

Enabled vietcong to conduct surprise attacks

Soilders lived there to hide from US and bombing

Americans couldn't counter, throwing grenades wasn't effective due to the structure

so significant on the successful guerilla

Communication with peasants

As Mao (previous success) stated "Political objective needed for guerilla success", they strictly decided their pro-peasant goal which led to the support of civilians

peasants gave shelters, foods, etc for survival

Castro

Sabotaged industry, such as sugar cane fields

Effective, because main source of government's income

furthermore, revolution was because of anti-American bussiness, so effective both strategically and mentally

Propaganda: big thing for Castro

"History will absolve me" speech and interviews to appeal

Became figure of a liberalation

Led to resource support from civilians, on Guevara's fight at the city area

Important front of the war, so signiciant

P3 - Effective Situation

Both were in situation where Guerilla warfare becomes effective

Both were able to gain support from citizens

Unpopular Diem and US Force

US widely known as US puppet

Opresed population using secret polices and amry forces, mainly communsits

Catholic policy, Buddhists burned themselves as protest

Even VPOTUS Johnson evaluated his governing policy negatively on his visit

Later phase, US damage on civilians by The Operation Rolling Thunder bombing, Agent Orange, Napalm, etc led to further anti-US

Led to support of citizens to Vietcong, which was needed for guerilla

significant

Unpopular Batista

Batista used brutal forces to keep Cuba under control

Able to present as fighters for liberalization rather than terrorists

This led to corporative attitute of some citizens, but wasn't significant since the fight was short

However

Vietnam

US Anti-war movment

television development

horrific scenes of villages burned, wars, etc affected

Anti-war musicians, including John Lennon contributed

Political Inability of US

weak political leadership

Johnson, who decided to enter the war by Tonking Gulf Incident in 1964

Aim containment and Domino Theory

Johnson viewed Vietcong as unpopular communist forces that could be easily defeated

Wrong policy of US not caring civilians (Rolling Thunder bombing etc), led to the outcome

However, as historian Tabor says, they had to do so because of guerilla, or lose

therefore this was also part of guerilla significance

Cuba

Cuban Weakness

Fight itself ended in 1 year (1958-59), much shorter than Vietnam war

Shows the inherent weakness of Batista government

unpopularity in the nation, even uS had to cut aid to Batisa in late 1950s

Historian Cushion highlights the effect of labor activists and political groups that also fought, independently from Guerilla

Possible Essay Questions

Resources

Cuban PhD Paper on Classroom might be good Source

Chapter 3 and 5

Notes

Dont need to focus "unsuccessful tactics", because those did not affect the outcome

blu3mo.iconif we have "evaluate effectiveness" question, should we state unsuccessful tactics?

PhD Paper on Classroom might be good Source

Chapter 3